Tank crashed...

[mandy21]

you don't want an air pump, you want powerheads.

Ph is way too low, suggested range is 8.0-8.4. I am betting other things start dying off if your ph remains low or fluctuates. It doesn't make sense for ammonia to be "off the charts" and then just disappear with a little water change. If you don't keep up on it, it's goingto come back. So, there needs to be a lot of tank stabilization before you add anything else. Don't be too hopeful on other things not dying.

 

[kryptic4l]

I had a massive nitrate spike. All I did differently was turn off my bubbler (it wasn't working right). I woke up to a dead tank. >_< Nothing but hermits, and ironically, a guppy(!) were left, my emerald crabs died, my pistol shrimp dead, my red scooter blenny is missing and presumed dead. Also, my feather dusters are fine (thank god). I'm now up to 20 of the little buggers, 4 small, and 1 large one.

Does this mean I should get a skimmer? Or could this be unrelated? I tested and got tons of phosphates and nitrates up the wazoo. This could be related to bad tap water too, so I did a 40% water change using $10/5Gallon ocean filtered water. >_< 100% better, No ammonia, nitrites, ammonia is 5 ppm or whatever the scale is, phosphates are very very close to 0, calcium is right around 500, KH is in the norm (can't remember the number).

Since the owner of my LFS took pity on me, I now have a tiny one clawed pistol shrimp, only set me back $5. Doing nicely, even popped an annoying red legged hermit that has been eluding me for a while.

This is in my nano, and most of the angle hair algae I had on my LR is dieing or dead, will it bounce back now that the water isn't cloudy (couldn't even see 1/4" into the murk Sunday)? Any recommendations on what I should do? Oh shoot, I forgot to do a PH test, oh well, it should be fine.

10 lbs of liverock, a few blue legged hermits, a freshwater guppy, and a pistol shrimp are my current livestock. Ideas for adding more stock? I might get the Goby that the shrimp had accepted at the LFS, but I'm certainly more of a invert fan than a fish fan. I may be picking up some coral soon, but I need to swap around lighting first.

so im assuming this is a 12 gallon tank or 14 gallon tank...

ill tell you this right now, if the "bubbler" is what i think it is IMO it doesnt belong in a sw tank

10 pounds of live rock is also short of the recommended 1 - 2 pounds per gallon recommended

next off, dont use tap water or algae tabs, for somereason i dont trust these "algae tabs" and algae shouldnt be a huge issue either if you stop using tapwater

also if your on top of weekly water changes you can get away with out skimming, my tank has no skimming and is doing just fine.

also do you have any power heads in the tank? if no i would recommend getting a hydor or something similar and pointing it upwards for some surface agitation......

and last off, this sounds like a fw tank converted to sw, how long has it been in the salt water state?

and to me it sounds like you dont even have a saltwater test kit, just one of the ammonia stickys... just my opinion

o and one last thing please post pics or at least give more information about your system including substrate, how you went from fw to salt etc...

 

[Sarra]

so im assuming this is a 12 gallon tank or 14 gallon tank...

ill tell you this right now, if the "bubbler" is what i think it is IMO it doesnt belong in a sw tank

10 pounds of live rock is also short of the recommended 1 - 2 pounds per gallon recommended

next off, dont use tap water or algae tabs, for somereason i dont trust these "algae tabs" and algae shouldnt be a huge issue either if you stop using tapwater

also if your on top of weekly water changes you can get away with out skimming, my tank has no skimming and is doing just fine.

also do you have any power heads in the tank? if no i would recommend getting a hydor or something similar and pointing it upwards for some surface agitation......

and last off, this sounds like a fw tank converted to sw, how long has it been in the salt water state?

and to me it sounds like you dont even have a saltwater test kit, just one of the ammonia stickys... just my opinion

I've got a bubbler for aeration, and a pump to move water around. I guess I could nozzle the pump towards the water surface and toss the bubbler...

It never was a fw tank, it's always been SW. I literally bought the tank, filled it with water, and added salt. There isn't aquarium gravel in it, I'm using actual sand, not crushed coral.

I have yet to find a powerhead that will give me enough water movement without being overpowering. This converted filter can generate too much water movement, I don't want to know what a 600 gph powerhead could do.

I have 3 test kits, a FW test kit, a SW test kit, and a Reef master kit. You know, the kinds with the 5 ml vials and nice, toxic and corrosive acids in them? I can claim 5 ppm of nitrates because that's what the color matches in the vial compared to the card. I've never used those 'stick things'.

And, the tank is 10 gallons, not 12, or 14.

I'm not using tap water, I'm using 5 lb bags of filtered ocean water.

I tested the PH of the ocean water I'm using, it's 8.5~ish. Not sure why the PH in my tank is so acidic. I'll purchase some PH fix when I go to Eugene this weekend.

For future refrence, the tools and equipment I have: 3 test kits (fw, sw, reef), hydrometer, thermometer, tank heater, "powerhead", bubbler, tank light, 10 gallon aquarium, and 20 lbs of sand (2" thick through most of the tank).

I have algae growing in the tank, but it is not a problem. Most of it is hair algae growing on some of my live rock.

 

[mandy21]

Ph fix won't solve the problem, it actually can lead to crashes and instability which is bad.

what are you considering overpowering in a 10g? I have 2 cheapo powerheads I bought from pet supplies plus in a 10 g quarantine. I think even a koralia 1 wuldn't overpower it, and there's one for even less flow - koralia nano. There are plenty of powerheads out there at even walmart that would not overpower a 10g. Ever been in the ocean? There's a lot of movement down there.

hair algae can quickly take over a tank and be a huge nuisance.

 

[dilbert]

Well, I couldn't find any hints of the ammonia spike in your first posting.

Maybe your blenny died and caused the ammonia to spike. Ammonia is the only thing you can actually smell and it makes the water cloudy.

The decay of dead animals surely frees acids that bring your ph down. I would wait to see if it raises by itself.

The nitrifying bacteria also depend much on the ph and actually grow slower at a high ph as in marine tanks. They multiply faster at a lower ph. Their actually preferred ph is 7.3 for one species and around 7.8 for another. Leaving them with a stable and slowly rising ph might be the best.

Why do you think that the pump of this Fluval 1Plus filter produces already too much flow?

My guess is that because of the low flow the bacteria in the live rock were on the limits and a litlle bit more decay than normal knocked them already off their feet.

If you put a powerhead below the surface I don't see how it can produce too much flow. I would direct the Fluval filter against the surface to get some more oxygen into the tank.

Everything in your tank should be robust enough to withstand some decent flow from a powerhead as reefs have lots of water movements. Even rock pools aren't stagnant.

 

[Sarra]

I'll watch the PH then, my source water is good now so hopefully that will eventually fix this.

My blue legs ate 50% of the algae in the first 2 weeks. Then it started growing back where it was, it was the same as when I got it right before the crash.

I have some mushrooms that get blown off rocks if they're in the direct flow of my current "powerhead". It swirls the water pretty good, it gets a good current flowing around my main Duster rocks. I'd like to get a second and use my light timer as a wave maker. Or I could buy a wave generator from my LFS. I just don't want to find a mushroom's remains in a powerhead. If it's really necessary, I will buy one from my LPS. I don't think it would make much more flow than this filter, it moves a lot of water without a filter sponge in it.

 

[kryptic4l]

all that i know is that i flow....... 500 gph. and my mushrooms dont move one bit
o and if you make a wave maker with a light timer... youll be my hero

 

[SHK_ATK]

my red scooter blenny is missing and presumed dead.

Did you check around your tank? Maybe it jumped out??

Also, my feather dusters are fine (thank god). I'm now up to 20 of the little buggers, 4 small, and 1 large one.

Are you sure they are feather dusters and not aptasia? (aka nuissaince anemone)

Does this mean I should get a skimmer?

Dont really need a skimmer (unless you go reef) if you do frequent water changes and dont over feed.

10 lbs of liverock, a few blue legged hermits, a freshwater guppy, and a pistol shrimp are my current livestock. Ideas for adding more stock?

I would get either the goby to pair w/ the pistol shrimp or a pair of firefish ( I like the purples carefull as they are jumpers)

I may be picking up some coral soon, but I need to swap around lighting first.

going reef will definetly mean you providing a more stable enviroment for the 10G there is nothing worse than spending a lot of $$$$$$$ on corals and then loosing them b/c of a tank crash.

How is the tank holding up?

 

[dilbert]

It can sometimes be difficult to direct the powerheads without blowing sandstorms but I got three Maxi-Jet MJ500 with 480 liters/h each and one Haileda with max 200 liters/h that is at min position streaming upwards in a 15 gallons tank. And I still got lots ofs areas with very low flow.

It's only a pain to balance this system.

 

[Sarra]

I did get a shimp goby for my pistol, apparently the shrimp isn't out enough to pair up with the goby yet. I'm hoping for tonight.

Yeah, I got a nice size chunk of coral today for $15. I tested everything before I put it in, my Nitrates are stable at 5.5, and the only worrysome thing is my KH is high and my phosphates are slightly elevated still (but not as bad).

I think I'll get a small powerhead. I turned off the bubbler today and noticed a ton of surface agitation just from my ghoetto filter-turned-powerhead. I think I'll keep an eye on things and leave the bubbler off (and transplant the bubblers to my 5 gallon crawfish tank).

As for aiptasia, I had an outbreak before I got most of my liverock and know what it looks like. The feather dusters are most certainly not aiptasia. I'd be scared to death of a mutated aiptasia that's multi-colored, and immobile.